Posts in Category: Photography
The Beautiful Gate
The Beautiful Gate Church, Oakland CA. (Click the photo to see it bigger.)
I rushed into work this morning, my second day on the job, hoping not to be late. And yet, just as I turned to go through the gate, I looked over my shoulder at the blinding morning light coming off the church across the street. I had no choice, but I took care of business as quickly as possible and hurried in. A study of changing light over time could be an interesting distraction.
Continental Divide
Lincoln Continental
One might suppose that on the day before I start a new job I would be focused on preparing myself. Such leisure would have been most welcome. Instead, it was a crazy day of non-stop errands too numerous to list here, but ending at midnight with the completion of the dessert item for the international potluck in Theo’s second grade class tomorrow. Somehow, I managed to get this shot of the Continental in between taking my mom back home and getting parts at the hardware store. So, all that running around was good for something after all.
Oh nothing, just some flowers
I know, the gallery display is still screwy. Just click the little images to see the big ones. I know, flowers. Very pedestrian. But damn, it was a beautiful morning. I loved that sun today. Even us goth industrialists like a flower every now and again.
Poppy
Poppies in downtown Oakland
Poppy
Gallery Games
I had every intention of meeting my obligation to put up my daily post last night. But as we all know, there is a famous paved road…
I really wanted to put up some photos, but do it in a gallery format with bigger images. So, since I had already gone searching for a WordPress photoblog theme and didn’t find anything I liked that much, I thought I’d just quickly find a gallery/lightbox plugin to get started on revamping the blog.
This too, turned out to be much harder than I expected. The main problem seemed to be that most of the gallery plugins don’t work with WP 3.1 yet, including the one I was particularly interested in based on the look of the front end. I finally ended up with something called “Fancy Gallery” that is acceptable in terms of the look of the lightbox, but nowthe thumbnail presentation looks all wacked. Very annoying. Example with semi-random photos follows.
By the time I got even this far, I was sleeping with the laptop on my belly and drooling into the keyboard. If anyone knows of a cool plugin, or how to fix this thumbnail display with the images all shoved together, please wack me upside the head with it. Or just leave a comment.
W.P.A. 1939
Weensor 1929 😉
Schnoor Bros, 1927 (#1)
Sidewalk Stamp, Chucks and Cat
Three Days
Downtown Oakland
I suppose it is time for a countdown. I have but three days left of working in downtown. I have to say, I’m going to miss it. There is so much interesting stuff to photograph and I really did not take advantage of the situation. Coming across stuff like the face above the doorway is just a nice little serendipitous treat. I may have to get off a stop early at 19th St the rest of the week, just so I have some morning walking to do, and a chance to get in a few more shots.
Of course, there will be new things to see in my new neighborhood. If I can re-establish the habit of biking to work, then it will simply be whole new chapter of commute photography. The weather is finally looking up, so perhaps I’ll be able to start that soon.
Can’t Fail
Can't
Fail
It really is true. Parenting takes time. We’ve had a lot on our parenting plate lately, and that’s another reason, perhaps, why I’ve missed some days posting. But today was the culmination of much of that effort with the execution of the dreaded piano recital. I say “dreaded” because we all came to dread what might happen. Theo was not practicing as much as a tiger mother would have him. The pieces were not there. We would put our foot down. He would pout. We would yell. He would frown. Then he’d play for a few minutes. Then jump up to reenact a Clone Wars battle scene. Occasionally, a real practice session would ensue.
And so it went until the day was upon us. Boy was he nervous. Frankly, I was nervous too, like I was the one going on stage. In the end, he did reasonably fine (Crappy compressed video here.) Better than he thought he would. Indeed, all the kids did really well, so much so that the whole thing was thoroughly enjoyable. Theo’s reward was going out to dinner to his favorite restaurant, Rudy’s Can’t Fail Cafe in Emeryville for a cheeseburger and a root beer float. And of course, along the way I found the opportunity to get my daily photo and even daily post out of it.
Can’t Fail. It all seemed fitting somehow.
Ocean
Ocean
Two things happened to coincide: I was preparing to back up the next folder on my hard drive and it happened to contain photographs from last summers trip to Hawaii. Then I looked at the daily email from WordPress for the postaday project and it was the weekly photo challenge: Ocean. So, what could I do? I had to post a photo of an ocean. But I suppose to be my usual solf-subverting self, I ended up selecting this blurry one instead of one of the more conventionally pretty ones. Who knows why?… not me, that’s for sure.
Retrograde Commute part 2
Part 2 of Retrograde Commute has some of the different square approaches I’ve been exploring.
Macarthur Station, Oakland CA Retrograde Square #1
Macarthur Station, Oakland CA Retrograde Square #2
Macarthur Station, Oakland CA Retrograde Square #3
Macarthur Station, Oakland CA Retrograde Square #4
Retrograde Commute part 1
El Cerrito Plaza Station, El Cerrito CA.
I catch the BART in El Cerrito. Often, but completely accidentally, I find myself on the Fremont train to downtown Oakland. I say accidentally because it could just as easily be the San Francisco/Milbrae train. When it is the Fremont train, it waits at Macarthur Station for the SF train on the other line, so that people can transfer. And it waits to allow that train to pull out first. That leaves me with the views pictured below, which I am intrigued by. I’ve playing around with some different processing approaches. These are the full frame versions. The next post will present the square crop versions.
El Cerrito Plaza Station, El Cerrito CA.
Macarthur Station, Oakland CA.
Macarthur Station, Oakland CA.
Lunch Rush
City Center
Right now, the lunch rush is to shoot as much as possible in downtown in the time I have left. I’m gettin’ everything I can from big to small, and close to far. The downside is forgetting to eat, and then getting low blood sugar and then wandering around looking for the perfect thing that I want to eat right now that I’m fixated on and that only exists in my addled mind. And then I end up back in the cafeteria on the fifth floor of the Federal Building. At least I get some photos out of it.
Stand-off
Ghost Sign
14th St Window Display
You must be logged in to post a comment.